HOMILY FOR TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY (YEAR C), SEPT. 4, 2016
"WHAT BRAND IS OUR GOSPEL FAITH?
Rev Fr. Thomas Owhome Oyode.
A look at our gospel reading today and the imagery of cost that Jesus uses to drive home his message not only reminds me of an article written by Emmarex Okhakhu which he titled, "What Brand is Your Church?", but also stirs in me a thought that the gospel truth shares certain principles with the secular dynamics of business and marketing albeit the former bears inherently superior principles above the secular.
In the light of this, if our secular society is fast developing a business-tech world with varied and pressing choices that permits a pick-choose-throwaway culture, how should the gospel message in all its truth and richness be communicated? How should Christianity encounter modern society?This is one of the many questions that today's liturgy addresses.
Like advertising a job placement, Jesus tells us that anyone who thinks himself/herself qualified for the Christian mission, must hate his life, his family and his relatives (Lk. 14:25; cf. Mat. 10:37). This as it were is a daunting requirement but Jesus wants us to realise that Christianity is a mission for the morally bold and not for the timid. That is the Spirit we received at baptism and confirmation; to boldly defend the truth by our way of life. Of course the passage bears a literary sense because the use of the word 'hate' is in fact, a hyperbole. In the Old Testament it was used as an idiom to refer to Jacob's preference for Rachael over Leah (Gen. 29:30-31). So it points to a choice to which one is totally loyal with absolute allegiance.
Precisely because of this sense of loyalty and allegiance like a typical business corporation, Jesus says that its logo and identity must be the Cross (Lk. 14: ). If we are to be loyal to the faith that we have embraced or seek to embrace, then we must resolutely embrace all it offers. This is the burden of loyalty and allegiance that would sell the gospel message to others.
Increasingly, Jesus does not want us to make this choice by a spur of the moment type of decision; He means serious business. Thus He says, count cost (Luke 14:28-33); evaluate viability and sustainability. Will the mission of witnessing persevere for long? Do you intend your Christian life to be part-time?
Is spirituality same as marketing? What Jesus proposes to us as the marketer per excellence is a gospel message branded and packaged with the glowing logo of the CROSS. A life of moral courage to confront falsehood with the truth, a life of moral uprightness that takes Christian life out of the precinct of the Church to the daily experiences of showcasing what we stand for as Children of God. It is a call to strive everyday to remove the mask that stands between what the gospel teaches us and who we really are. It is the challenge of bringing spirit of Christ, the Christian spirituality into the Christian marketplace.
Finally, Jesus makes it clear that this is tough. It is like enlisting for the army. thus he does not think it is cheap business. He does not expect that we would think that He could cheapen the cost so as to carry everyone along. Walter Kasper says that the Church does not propose 'cheap mercy' (The Gospel of the Family). This means that we would not seek to cheapen the faith, remove the truth of the Cross as we dialogue with the world of today. We must human wills and mundane preferences to the divine and sublime designs of God: "none of you can be my disciples if you do not give up your possessions" (Luke 14:33). This calls for a deeper personal commitment.
May Our Lady Queen of Apostles obtain for us the grace of boldly witnessing tot eh values of Truth and Justice. Amen
nice homily fr
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